DARK CITY

Charles Bernstein Dark Cit1r, Charles Bernstein's twentieth book, is an at times comic, at times bleak, excursion into everyday life in t}re late zotlr century. ln Dark Ct7, Bernstein moves tlrough a startling range of languages and forms, from computer lingo to t}e cant of rv talk shows, from high-poetic diction to junk mail, from intimate address to philosophical imperatives, from would-be proverbs to nursery rhymes and songs. Bernstein's city is flickering and evanscent, moving from Madras to NewYork to Los Angeles, from "Virtual Reality" to "The View from Nowhere." Yet his collage of diversive/divisive voices also represents, as T[e VillageVoice has noted, "A tireless attempt to regain our attention and bring us from inertia into discourse again": Love is Iike love, a baby

DARK CITY

like a baby, meaning like

memory, Iight like light. A journey's a detour

andapocketacharm
in which deceits are borne. A cloud is a cloud and a story like a story,
song is a song, fury

like fury.

Author of, most recently, A

Poetics

(Harvard University

Press), RoughTiad.es (Sun & Moon Press), and The Sopfiisr (Sun

& Moon Press), Charles Bernstein is the David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at the State University of NewYork, Buffalo.

SUN & MOON PRESS

rsBN 1-55713-162-7

LOS ANGELES
$r

r.9s

||ilruilililillruil

il]illillilfllt

T]AHI{
DARK CITY
by

[ITY

Chorles Bernstein

LOS ANGELES

SUN & MOON PRESS

r99+

Sun & Moon Press A Program ofThe Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc. a nonprofit corporation 6 o z 6 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 9 oo 3 6 This edition first published in paperback

f,ontents

in

994 by Strn & Moon Press

z

to 9 8 7 6 S + 3
FIRST EDITION

@ Charles Bernstein, r994

All rights reserved

Some of these poems first appeared in Avec, Big Ailis, Caliban,
Conjunctions, Contemporanea, Frugmente, Generator, H ambone, O-bleh, Rethinking Marximt, Sulfur,Verse, and

The Lives of theTollTakers

Sunsickness

IIre

Best

American Poetry t9gz.

3I
+r
+9

The author wishes to express his thanks to the editors: Cydney Chadwick, Melanie Neilson and Jessica Grim, Lawrence Smith, Bradford

Desalination

Morrow,Thomas McEvilley, Anthony Mellors and Andrew lawson, John Byrum, Nathuriel Mackey, Peter Gizzi and Connell McGrath, Jack Amariglio and Harriet Fraad, Jerome McGarur, Susan Schultz, and Charles Simic. Thanks also to the NewYork Foundation for the Arts for a Poetry Fellowhip in r 99o and to
Douglas Messerli and Susan Bee. This book was made possible, in part, through an operational grant from the AndrewW Mellon Foundation and through contributions to

LocksWithout Doors
How I Painted Certain of My Pictures

6t
7t
79
85

TheView from Nowhere Virtual Reality

Emotions of Normal People Debris of Shock Heart in My Eye

The Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. Cover: Georgia O'Keeffe, Street,NewYork,No. t Design: Katie Messborn Typography: Guy Bennett
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Bernstein, Charles

Shock of Debris

ro5
I
13

Reveal Codes The Influence of Kinship

I r9

Dark City (Sun & Moon Classics: 48) p. cm - IsBN: r-SJ7r3-r62-7

Patterns...

r3I
r39

I.Title. II.
8

Series.

r''54-dczo

Dark City

Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free paper.

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved here, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into
a

retrieval

system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission ofboth the copyright owner and the above publisher ofthe book.

There appears to be

receiver off the hook. Not that

The Lives of the Toll Takers

you care.
Beside the gloves resided a hat and two

pinky rings, for which no finger was ever found. Largesse

with no release became, after not too long, atrophied, incendiary,

stupefying. Difference or

dfferance:it's
the distinction between hauling junk and

removing rubbish, while

I, needless not to

say,

take

out the garbage

(pragmatism)

Phone again, phone again jiggity jig.

I figured

Io

CTTnRLES BTnNSTETN

Danr Crrv
Barbara Kruger is enshrined in the window

they do good eggs here. Funny $: making a killing on

of theWhitney's I987 Biennial

la mixture is worth a thousand one-line setvesl.

junk bonds and living to peddle the tale

(victimless rime)

Nei
ther

(Laughing all t}e way to the Swiss bank where I put my money

speaking the unspeakable nor saying

in gold bars
[the prison house of language]

the
unsayable

.) Simplicity is not
the
same as simplistic.

(though no doubt slurring the unslurrable): never only Sullen dedef

supposition, salacious conjecture, slurpy ded

ining, always rec uction. onstricting (libidinal flow just another

"A picture [fixture]

is worth more than a thousand words":

word for loose

st

With this
sally, likely to barely make

ools).There was an old lady who lived in

zoo,
she had so many admirers she

it

into a r 965 "short stabs" poem byGd "bowl over" Berrigan

fa tincture gives birth to a gravely vervel

didn't know what to rue. Li

ke

t2
a

CuaRLES BTnNSTETN
a greasy

Dnnr Crrv
(sentiment)

I3

dull blade with

handle (a

docent page with an unfathomable ramble). Poetry's

like a spoon, with three or four

exemptions: in effect only off-peak, void were permitted by Lord,
be

bent-over

triple play
on all designated ghost phonemes (you mean morphemes) [don't tell me what I mean!
1.

with
ironv

Rhymes may come and

be

rhymes may go, but ther

e's

unable

no crime like presentiment. To refuse the anything

assert

affirmation

but to find
such

(a)

statement

straight-forward
statement already

t+

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
undermined
by the resistance

Denr CIrv
who lives in a stew...) (A picture is worth ++.9 put on words.)
She can
S

r5

but no price can be

it
pretends

slip and she can slide, she's every

to
overPower by its idealism
masked as

parent's

"y&j
b

(guide;
realism.

What? No approach

In dreams begin
poetry.

lot of bad

too gross if it gets a laugh. In Reagan's

vocabulary, freedom's

Then where is my place?

Fatal Error Fz7: Disk directory full.

just anotler word for "watch out!" (I pride myself on my pleonastic

(Besides.)

The things I

a[r]mour.)

{ardour}

rwite

are

not about me
though they
become me.

Love may come and love may

90 o

but uncertainty is here forever.

You look so bec

{profit?}
(There was an old lady

oming, she said, attending the flower pots.

t6

CTTIRLES BTnNSTETN I'm a very

becom ing guy

Dnnr Crrv
to tire tracks. On the
way without stipulating the destination, the better

r7

(tell it to
)
.

to get there (somewhere,

other

That is, better ).

to
become than (gestalt f[r]iction)

Trrr uAGrc
{traction?}

pHoNEME FoR ToDAy Is "KTH".

Funny, you don't look gluish. Poetry: the showme business.

You've

{flirtation?}
to be:
ac

tuality
is

just said the magic phoneme!

just around

"Don't give me
any
a glance

the corner (iust a spark

ofyour

in the dark); self-actualization

a

in

show-me business."
She

tank of concave [concatenating] mirrors. Not

angles, just

wore blue velvet but I was color blind and insensible.

Heavy tolls, few

tangles. From which

a

advances.

Are you cl

direction emerges, p
urges. Hope

gives way

to your m

I8

CTTnRLES BTnNSTETN
other?

Denrc Crrv
it but
I misp
laced

t9

The brain of Bill Casey preserved in a glass jar deep undercover in Brunei. Andy Warhol is the
P.T. Barnum

it somewhere
in the
back burner

of the
(late)

of what
is laug
:

twentieth century hingly

there's
a

called m succor dead every twenty seconds.

A depository of suppositories
(give it me where it counts: one and

mind

(*y
crim

two and
one

e).4
mind is a terrible thing to steal: two

thr
eee)

intellectual prcpeft)/ is also

thrrt.

Ollie North, pound of chalk-but who is writing,

what is

r+riting? Nor

I had

all your regret change one word of it; yet so long as the blood

20

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
drinkable.

Dnnx Crry
Delish.

2t

flows in your veins there is ink

Ieft in the bottle.

Ferr

a
(spiritus sancti).No"mere"readers only

wHIsrLE To rvRITE

I imagine you unbespectacled, upright, dictating with no hint of undercurrent,

a

writers who read, actors who interact. Every day fades way, nor

victim of the tide.

What

all your piety

if
that at the point of some

or ob sreed brins back one hour:

strike.

take a swivel to

success scares you so much

modest acceptance, midway through life's burning, you blast out

(The near-heroic obstinacy of his refusal [inability?] to despair.)

& who
can say

onto t}e street, six-shooters smokin$, still

For what?

rebel.

whetler dejection or elation will

ensure the care for, care

Of course new ventures always require risk, but by carefully

analyzing the situation, we became smart risk takers. Fear of
sofiness characterized as rounded edges, indecisiveness, need

in the world that may lead us weightless, into a new world or sink us, like lead
baboons,

to

please versus the humorless

rigidity of the "phallic"

edge, ready

deeper into this o

ne? Yet

to stand erect, take

sides (false dichotomy, all dichotomies).

you have to admit it's highly

An affirmation that dissolves into the fabric of

22

CTTaRLES BpnNSTETN
unaccounted

Den
would

r Crrv

23

desires, undertows of an imaginary that cannot be willed away but

mean working for nothing. Poetry services provide cost savings

neit}er need be mindlessly

obeyed. What's that? If it's not good news
as

to readers, such
avoiding hospitalizations (you're less likely

to get in an accident if you're home reading poems), minimizing

wasted time (condensare), and reducing

I don't want to hear it (

stand up and

leer.) Our new

adverse idea interactions

service orientation
mea

nt not only changing the way we rnn'ote poems but also diversifying into new poetry services. Poetic

(studies show higher levels of resistance to double-bind political programming among those who read 7.7 poems or more each week ).
Poets deserve compensation

for such services.

opportunities
For readers unwilling to pay the price
,

we need to refuse to provide such however, do not fall into your lap, at least not service as alliteration, internal rhymes, exogamic structure, and unusual vocabulary.
Sharp edges which become shady groves,

very often.You've got to seek them out, and when you find them you've got to have the knowhow to take advantage of them.
Keeping up with the new aesthetic environment is an ongoing

mosaic walkways, emphatic asymptotes (asthmatic microtolls). The hidden language of the Jews: self-reproach, laden with ambivalence, not this or this either, seeing five sides to every issue, the old pilpul song and dance, obfuscation

process: you can't stand still. Besides, our current fees

barely cover our expenses; any deviation from these levels

2+

CrraRLES BpnNSTETN

Denx Crrv
I did not know enough to navigate through the rocky waters that lie ahead for all of us in this field. How had Homer done it, what might Milton
teach? Business training turned

25

clowning as ingratiation, whose only motivation is never offend, criticize only with a discountable barb: Genocide is made of words like these, Pound laughing (with Nietzche's gay laughter) all the way to the carroribanl spewing forth about the concrete value of gold, the "plain ,..rr. of"th. word", a people rooted in the land they sow, and cashing in on such verbal usury (language held hostage: year one thousand nine hundred eighiy seven). There is no plain sense of the word, nothing is straightforward,

out to be just what I most needed. Most importantly, I learned t}at

description a lie behind but truths can still be told.

These are

lie:

for a business to be successful, it

needs to be different, to stand out

the

sounds o;f science (whoosh,

blat,

fipahineyhoo), brought to you by DuPont, a broadly diverstfed compan)l dedicated to

exploitation through science and industry. Take t}is harrow off

from the competition. In poetry, t}is differentiation

is best

achieved through the kind of form

my chest, I don't feel

it anymore

we present.
Seduced by its own critique, the heady operative with twin peaks and a nose for a brain, remodeled the envelope she was pushing only to find there was nobody home and no

it's getting stark, too stark

to

see, feel

I'm barking

at Hell's spores.

The new sentience. As if Harvard Law School

was not a re-education camp.

time when they were expected. Water in the brain, telescopic Malthusian dumbwaiter, what time will the train arrive?, I feel weird but then I'm on assignment, a plain blue \t'rapper with the taps torn, sultan of my erogenous bull's eyes, nothing gratis except the tall tales of the Mughali terraces, decked like plates into the Orangerie's glacial presentiment . . No, only that the distinction
.

I had decided to go back

to school after fifteen years in community poetry because I felt

26

CHARLES BpnNSTEIN
between nature and than be exploi

Dnnr Crrv
ted.) If you break it, you
won't have it anymore.

27

culture may obs

the
b

Solemn in functional midrift, tooting at bellicose grinding, who can no more bear witness to the doddering

odily gumption of language.

Hello
mJ name is Max Gomez

demise of diplomacy than uproot the cancer at the throat of those

trajectories.
"Daddy, what did you do to stop the war?"
= I ovwhiu
z

(s

gt

Thgb cf6 7 q6 dvq ujx6

7 sf

z,

gt

7b. c.

9 3 z 7b 9 7b 9 8 7b 8

houlis
hness is

7td7t!9 Sgdukbhq g9tq97

98 icxqyj

zf r o 8ytscxags6

j 7 zjc .<Mrl
7

tp

it

-\

io

We may be all one body but we're sure as hell not one mind.

.d).
(Commanding without being a command.)

(Tell her I had to

change my plans.) It's not

Or

else to say, Catalogs are free, why not we?

what you know but

Clear as f
udge.

who knows
about

it

Then what can

believe in?

& who's likely to

(She'd rather exploit

28

CTTaRLES BTnNSTEIN
squeal

.
your lip, cl

Button

"'

tie'

rou

'ou'
job

re on the B team. (A

by

*y

other name
as

would smell

sour.)

/rt
not an operating tlstem

it

san
oP

erating environm
ent. Besides

Blame it on resembling, as if it would

change so easily, rough up glares

Sunsickness

or trace avenues by fingertip.

You skirt on top afraid to sink

into and why not

falter, marched into elides, forked by definition or conscripted from dsglxm21l6nthe founding harbors faced it thus. Then alone on hooks, trying

to get loss, the ground

refusing way. There's no point, you proceed with intermittent
steps, & when the starting line appears

it can't be said
it's the same. No inanity suited better than this poled tack. Nor too much light either-heaving like
you'd just been hit in the face by
3r
a

32

CneRLES BTnNSTETN wave-yet no particle

cares had

Denr Crry
it out or blow it up.
Less & less

33

tlat much. I'd wager you've

to hold onto but more & more to do, be

done. If that doesn't stretch t}e point

it by now-burn or defraud your

comeuppance as some sort of serial madness,

pegged to the flap that won't mind its
places.

too far. Going cold turkey or lukewarm

tongue. Not my language-just a lot of

There was azure, agate, fool's

luggage-but no
with
just
a

use

jettisoning the fading

dust, but I never got any, just this speculative bon6re. I d give you credit
f61

eau de cologne.

Not my handle-

lot oftags on bags ofbaggage

$rx1-!ut credit never satisfied

that look none too familiar. Then everybody drops from sight & all the
\ rrong things said repeat themselves like
so many masquerades you can't

you. & after that there's only bone or blood

or sinew & not enough to share. Certain

things are private or anyway demand

privacy-but I'd be reluctant to say

who. No more than you I'm content

pull

yourself out of. & screaming down

the hall without any signs of cause. Pleading for hope when hope was just

to lay low, tank up on decompression

& sing a chord or

two-not

possible

to remember many more than that. Or failing to note the calm (calamity), fall prey to remoter executions (l mean command

tlle problem. Or should I throw

pie

in your face? (Pronoun slips on banana.)

-Michael
from distant quarters). There is
a

writes of sun, but all I can think

choir

of is sunsickness, too much in the sun

never a daughter. As if God's

here & don't know whether to blow

3+

CrreRLEs BTnNSTETN
light still shone on we who have shaded our eyes. A few phrases remain, but the drift is vanish. No way out & no way

Dnnr Crry
in the face of being absolutely false &
patently misleading.
Facts are a dime a

35

dozen but opinions are like pearls. Society's

in-a
stage

straight call to blast.

sailed amid so many stuffed shirts. The road

Adrift on

for all 16 yis\M-

redelivers the redaction.Yet form can contain

almost nothing, just enough. & bursts

t}e cringe, the sigh, the curvilinear

elide. The scholar-trancemaker hangs

onto the floor waving & jumping up & down. Sleighbells of an anticipated foreclosure chiming at
a

from t}e end of a trope and

asks

to be cut down. An umbilical cord

signifies no less.Yet despite, I can now see

frequency beyond reach

yet driving to distraction all the

same; which is to say

or is it all
a mistake?

& does it splatter?

without goal & undecidable

The important thing is the sweep by which

expectation-can't

even say

t}e specific

is hampered

leyyxld-&

naming the passage time or

on its way to the laundry. The "only objective comment"

placelessness. Getting in bed with promise

& waking up with make-believe. Fortunately impecunious, at least on

materials level. Floor board, window
a

lifted from the interrogation, then fingered

in this historical fantasy some have undertaken to get out of. & so our
Reviewer can state that his false assertions
are "absolutely true" & "patently true" even

pme, ceiling with

as a

f*,

. . . Cold

as a

cow

long tail going to confession, crazy

one-legged chair at an ass-kicking contest,

36

CTT,q.RLES BTnNSTEIN
nervolls as wet fog, silly as a bedbug

Denrc Crry
is vapor. Days stifling of cork &

37

in

a brass

bra, smelly as a white man

1

circles of music, sordid front mounted, enlarged

on election day,

enters the canvas.

trembling like spectre of corpses adorned

(absorbed). & the fissures
elevate themselves & grunt

Then what would you know the meaning

of Hard as honey, white as flint, loud

as

the snoq dumb as mud . . . There

& the savor forces its

effects. Like as to as & what to what remains.

be another horizon, boots on bay, time

left for every day. It's not

as

if

Me won voice. Me other is: An objection: haze of the subject brought to a locus. An aberration: filter as creator-aspire to what is dejectedly broken
occasionally the inflection of meteoric

it hasn't been said before or won't be

said another time, but never quite

the same. Soft as midnight, clear

as

dead . . . With the radio you always

turn this sort of thing off & now you're

p(l)aying for it. Floating entirely
inside the dump, unmaking proportion

& terminal vagueness. Everything marked, no need to fence.

Sopping hard & alike
a
as

in small-mout}ed widgets encapsulated

astride phantom departures. Slow & sullen; fast & nasty. [Please do not turn
page until completion of song.l For which I

fiddle & a dive. A simple no

that knows no answer.

{{he

say cut

offtheir

hands, then he shall have his tongue cut out.

languish, in thousand lacerations entangled.

But revenge is for cues & plates (tools &

Demark wave, implosion of what

38

CTTeRLES BpnNSTETN
states), defiance for the rest who wait

& are willing. For what

you may learn is that by going

down into the secrets of your own crimes you descend

into the secrets of all

mimes (minds). Anyway:
some

other. Worlds

hourlv chanqinq Jdb

sparring with cause to an

unknowable end. Asking

no less, demanding no

Then suddenly and without explanation

a

bell rings. A grifter, his hands

Ilesalination

covered by calfskin gloves, drives to the station house to receive the goods. Exemplary passages are cited. A mystical blond with a scintillating hat devours the nightlife. Overtures
are made to the underlying functionaries

in the hope that they might oil

the machinery. Fades prompt petty tirades on the part of the tired professor. Enabling fictions adorn the prisoner's cells. In a minute

you can hear the dust settle on the

settee. The troupe fans out to

outflank the patrol. Portions of lockets are auctioned at poolside. A gazelle collides with a zebra
+r

+2

CrreRLEs BTnNSTETN
on t}e crowded skyway. Sentiment cements the well-setded arrangement. The fabricator eschews her prognostication. Streetlamps crash into pounding surf. Foreign lances punctuate the intermission.

Denr Crrv
of his blood. Oil tankers pour steam

+3

into the gulf, upsetting the balance

of argument and insularity. Sorcery
threatens the petulant perpetuators. Unequal in demand, frightening in

A billiard pictures a tumbling terrace. Sewage accumulates at rearmost flexpoint. Plumage flutters from
above,

reward, flares appear dim & the sky a tenement ceiling.

Unguents unnerve the future bookie's

gift of a departed origin.

rvry predicament, mindful of deeds left unfinished, duties not

discharged. Crumbling

The regulator consults the ordinance

but cannot determine its application.

Sustenance evaporates in subsequent

into the Seine, memories of mysteries never

conceived. Then drops a lantern,
a

slumber. Amulets emit armatures. An obligation meets its reward. Laundry

revolves in large metal tumblers filled

picture window. Notation develops on top of

nuance. Crusts accrue like pillows

wit}

soapy water. The radio covers

in a fight.Voiced

as

if regard were

the burn in the table. Headwaiter pockets tip from man in wool

trust or limousines malteds. The fun

is over before the fun begins. As when
a chance

suit, makes bet. Snow obliterates

the distinction between here & eternally. Man's body stocking constricts the flow

to speak becomes

a chance

to

slip: accommodation its own desperation, dispute its own punishment. Pulling a dumbwaiter

++

CTTaRLES BpnNsrErN
& wishing for water. Discoloration of the enmazed tractor parts-shifting through t}e pieces to find
the heart}. Hunt or hunched or clump or

Danr Crrv
through the puddle splashing the pedestrians.
The bride, tripping on trail, mal<es her way

+5

to the launch. Holsters pile up in the checkroom.

The mission is cancelled. Balloon slips

confront. Roads roll into the harbor, with no sign of the travelers.The crow flies
over the abandoned mine, irrespective of penetratable homilies. Slow, maybe slender, taking

from hand and floats into sky, like

the soul of Jesus meeting

its father. The bus disappears on route to Jakarta. Holiday sales mask the despair

foreground for must. Craters cantilever to the corner.

A forager flushes his finds. Sacrifice

deploys secreted salvage. Burgers bounce busily. Ratiocination cops plea to lesser offense. Curls dwindle

ofa populace exhausted by good cheer and bad

chocolate. Ice coats the windows and railing of the fabled outhouse. An apprentice disconnects
the hose that irrigates the pavilion's ostentatious gardens. Workm en erect the towering edifice according to plan, then

in the high-pressure dome. The dreidel

begins to wobble wildly before tumbling to

ground. Emanations suffuse the body.

Sound permeates the scAu/. Young man

report to nextjob.

with horn can't hit imaginary note.

Steeplechase cascades through valley.

Someone says something. Motor oil materializes

miraculously. Camels stagger in the desert.

Snowballs batter the Mercedes as it speeds

"'i::lil:i:T:T"
Locks Withcut Doors

it,, ,",

promise not to get mad

if I tell you something? Nothing

notable except the prism without

Iight effects. Except that

expectations stymie hunger for exceptions, such that dedication rumples the doily

while in a tugboat there's

too little chance for remorse. Like pillars of sand at a Revivalist Meeting or pockets of pumice at
Pita Party. For when the fire chief
a

told Pickles that he could stay

the cat knew he had finally

found

home. Any other solution

would be shallow and unseemly and so

+9

5o

CTTaRLES BEnNsrErN
1

Danr Crrv

5r

seemingly inconsolable. An inexorable

For long have

float bombarding an quixotic emission,

a

Les s

eck than

Who

quaint and wary worr! swarms

entombed my love ay ed up on

fleeting factotum culminating in

In

tides lament nor laminations ore

As stare comparcs a bellys tumble

gesellschaft. Settlefor
less

Have

awaited by the slope

OJlumined ledgers lumbering links Foregone though never bent

andyou'll get

less.

A kettle of fish
is worth two pints of pink chocolate, a

3.

Not that I mean to startle just

unsettle.The settlers pitched their tents into foreign ground. All ground is foreign ground when you get to know it as well as I do. Well I wouldn't agree. No agreement like egregious refusal to hypostatize a suspension. Suspension bridges like so many drummers at bat, swatting flies in
the hot Carolina sun. No, son,

bucket of kool-aid twice

coterie of

Stump not lest ,1,p,

:l"J:;r,

swagger into

indelicacy, delirious indolence. The

world is half right, half flight, half

sorro\
r,

it

half sliced. The

eucalyptus

wasn't like that only learned we had to be proud not what's worth taking pride in.

bloomed in the decor, the dooryard extruded the stall.

+.

Looking for truth but finding only memory

52

CHERLES BTnNSTEIN
5.

Dnnr Crrv
9.

53

Like two boats with one oar

Two lives with one core

I got no eyes all ears

6.

tear verbs

Forest ranger, inflatable stranger Show me the place to flop down Longing to go, got a beer & hoe Deep under this frown

for very long

had no song

give me a day

to make my sway glow and rasp will not last

be kind slow mind
go blow

My daddy told me
Were certain men Sell you for fodder

In ocean of sense

Tiied to talk to you

Given my word No sense talking To men with no curves

fill holes
come clean 8o away

7.

I can't but make it confluesce.

in summer
get butter

floor plan
poor slant
8.

regularize never knew what west is

best is

close your eyes

summary

mummery

5+

CnaRLES BsnNSTETN
grumble fumble
ice cold innuendoes

Danr Crrv

55

in

it

No touch like your touch Tiled to the flap it spun Holding windows make-shift blouse In rolling tide would crest Cold lurch spills spit fold

for keeps

all right

too slight mike knows it's over

sam helps those

Wild by such splat is come Flushing sinews buttressed blast On twirling slides next bounce

r2.

I'll

cooperate

swallow my pride Before I die

I'd bury my song Without your arm

r3.
IO.

not for you

the hullabaloo

The quality of Hershey's is not too great although I always preferred Skippy's smooth to crunch. If Devil Dogs are not so good as Mars bars, Camel's can still do what noVirginia SIim dares.There was a time I'd take a chance on generic but I've learned to take pride inTide.

56

CHARLES BTnNSTEIN
t+"

Dan< Crrv
r8.
you got a license for that torque?

57

"Put em away or else I'll

take

tlem

away" 19.

"I'll

smack you on the face you say t}at again"

"There go the lassoes"

Books can be deceiving, for instance that look you gave me does not faze me or it'll be a frozen fog in Alberta before the slot delivers.

r5.
lovely to see you lolling about the lake eating cake

"He stepped right on our castle" t6"

the brot}erhood of sleeping cars

"It's

real crab with flaws"

"Don't blame me I'm from Idaho" "Don't blush it only appears to be happening"

r7.

2r.
I used to be Detroit Now I'mTennessee I used to be distraught Now I'm hard to get along with
Then again the quality of Jersey is not much to wriggle your teeth about five o'clock I'd say nothing about it to him at all you've meant to her & she turned it over in her head straight for the moors
Put lack in your pipe and stroke

it.

22.

Not the hand

in the glove but the mitten in your mouth.

"You say I'm like

Jewish mother but the kid

How I Painted f,ertain of My Pictures

is losing weight." Turning by turns as though

turns would make it different. Sunny

with shallows all about, the solvent

flush of fiduciary abandon. Mayhem that may be all right for Craig or Thomas but makes Dora duller. By crater
lake, the minds too late.

Or do the

pushed pins pullulate; not that

t}e motivation to continue could ever

be

just go on. lngratiatingly grouchy, guardedlyunconscious. Or else the pride of admission

is not worth spitting on. I got to
gargle

but the loop's on the vcR

& the pillow's in deep fry. Similar to dusting for fiberboard after each 6t

6z

CnaRLES BsnNSTETN
feel. "I
don't like mistakes, but purposes truly scare me." The lorry
has

Denr Crry
out, or find t}e work too demanding (demeaning), too extra
ordinary. There
are sleigh bells I know but never

63

left the

levy lest the sandwiches lay

lost, looted. Which cries out suddenly, incorrigibly

that the gasket's blown an apricot. Or

mine. Yet nothing I've lost, nothing

yet to

there'lIbe no more glowing. As in

a deed is

find. If that makes you

sad

worth only half a word, over

then I'm sad too, even though we've never met or meet just now. Events
are no protection from circumstance

three-foot bird (seldom

blurred). & then

t}e

launches sway in the cringe, fix

& circumstance is a positive hindrance.

Darling girl, darling boy
Let's burn the house Tear down the ploys Stalled among the pantomimes, obsolete rimes. Never saw a bird that didn't want to

flutters against green & yellow mutters (mothers). "Thomas

is in my place &

won't

move." But it's not birds that are the problem. As if the ordinary
were just there answering

fly-but

there must be

pigeons of different feather. Yet woman & man

are no feat}er at all. Crazy like this

our call but we

won't sound it

rag gun rapping on my brain's floor.

64

CnaRLES BEnNSTETN
to the slaughter like you ought'er Just & take that smirk offyour grimace
So skip

Danr Crrv
like if the world doesn't care rvho will?

65

"Don't scream so close my face!"

That we have to inhabit the world to know where

Yet kindness has such a bad

the earth might be, is. Then where was name, deliverance no less.Tiees won't
say

it

(was it?) lost. When I get

it

any better than

"O!"
home

I'll

glue it together as a little book.

rings" Every syllable stings. & that's the hardest thing to stomach on a low-noise

& if that won't work we can play Billiecome-gravely all the way to the moon.
the clue slips tear

diet, if you can sink your teeth into

it. Nor jingle your

t}e
thought that all that sound gotta be
digested. Anemic

jaundiced gestures in my directions.

I'm

as

plump

as a

cherry on the tree

GeorgeWashington never chopped, as carefree

poetry-or roughage2-for
continent society? But

the healthas a

hornet in amphetamine

dive. You'll
be lucky if you get out of here with your

why prize distraction over direction, song over solemnity? The times detail a change of
pockets & everybody's loopy, mind made up

yarmulke In1ns1-fut the shadow world will intervene before the last lost moment. "People

wit} hospital corners, while the leaves

don't like you because you're

fra1-5slfish

of our lives unsettle their occupation. Or

is

& whiny." Although if you brush your teeth twice you'll get more than enough advice.

it a value simply to glide in the

turbulent air & push back'r,vhen t}ings

get foreshortened? The fate of the

"l had to leave the job because I couldn't

earth-

56

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
stand the people & the work was totally
as

Danr Crry
you can blow t}em. But it's time I came clean & you swept the boat

67

absorbing." Because humble is not the same

as

(l mean cameo): floor-length conscription with

m

humiliated.
Notice which bugs.

atching fi ve- piece hush- orange ensemble.

Reading the riot act in the middle of

sacral pacts. "Whatever you say,

& over & over again

with aesthetic turpitude

(Let's trade flavors).

Sheriff!" "lt's been a long day,

they always are." "But why can't I

Normally I'd

say there was no

jettisoning.

go out because I can see children

But my friend Frisby-Love took all she could take before dead-ending in the herbervescent poker patch. Darn this dated elan, these holes of pure cheesecloth . As { outside
were anywhercs

playing?" Fluent in dreams, inconsolable

ot}erwise. "l guess I have you

to thank

for the mustard." I guess

we all just

at a/1. Bruised to the knees

in amours & cleaves. Confidence just

a

want to go home to bed.

I guess

prick-the

man

on the barge selling you the bridge between this thought & this.

light doesn't even notice

it's going so fast.

Drum beats on the meridian, sun beats on the

Mercedes. Mr. Bush stares blankly
as deep

Still waters run about

on the podium wondering what to do next. M.

68

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
Mitterand has some warm words for Danton. Mrs.
Thatcher bangs a few notes on her bagpipe. The silencers click onto the muzzles.

"l just don't want to have to

go through that again."

I',ll just put down my

Pen. Exeunt.

CurtainACTION I

The View from Nowhere

"Zip it

up-l

don't care-you listen

to me." Proscriptive or prescriptive: the weight of tradition or

a

tradition of weights. Just

waiting to get the go ahead from my friends on

the force. Blanked

out on parry when route

has

found alternative to clown-out, suction. Running

to meter the lawn in consequence of which

showers departure. "Chill

off!" Confining
masquerade

to detail, touching
promise until you've fingered the figures out of it, out of

yourself. & yelling behind tJre truck, inaudible

7r

72

CsaRLEs BrnNsrErN
to t}e exhaust, like some nasty duck pounding against
a

Dnnr Crrv
scale. The importance of this pond.

73

point will emerge when we see how complex

a

The view I am going to suggest, I hope in

less obscure

psychological interchange constitutes

the natural development of sexual

language, is related to t}is.

abstraction. t felt

Essentially, there are tlree types of problems. Sometimes

bad.

felt cold. I felt

completely out of

with hardly a notion that

she has

heard a word. Blue & blueblack. For what's the point of having

it.
The article
paints a picture

different words if they mean the same

thing? Something made me

want to get out of the house. I

of its author

as

seething with jealousy

& egomania-hopelessly out

of touch

couldn't understand that money was going

to be burned
when people was

with the material

that is his

in need. But the issue

is

putative
subject. The thing then to watch the spectacle

different if we return

to the question posed at the beginning. In

addition to the question of objectivity is
the question of

without being sucked up

in

i1-f61

there is

7+
a danger

CneRLES BTnNSTETN
in finding yourself dictating

Dnnr Crrv
All t}is
is as clear as day

75

defenses to crimes not only not committed

but really just the opposite 6f g1;ms5-what

is left to be done. Of course, what

right now. The crow

slides low over the abandoned

mine, looking for correspondence &

many have regarded as a liberating permission

twine. While in
the rioters have
notJring
see

Gaza

to write in otherwise unsanctioned ways

will provoke professional sanction-takers to

only red. Because of casuistical problems like this I prefer to stay with the original
unanalyzed distinction between what one does to people

to lose but loss.

The view I am going

to suqqest DO
I hope in less obscure language
is related to

& what merely

happens to them as a result of what one does. Notions

this.

for
h"y

a September day,

lying in the

of tumultuous enfolding.

Jor
Swear

Susan

Virtual Heality

there is a sombrero

of illicit
desquamation

(composition). I forgot to
get the potatoes but the lakehouse (ladle) is spent asunder. Gorgeous

gullibilityort the origin of testiness

(testimony).
Laura
does

t}e laundry, Larry

Iifts lacunas.
Such that details commission of

misjudgment over 3 o-day

intervals.
BY

the sleeve is

the

cuff & cuff link (lullaby, left offensive,

houseboat).
79

8o

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN Nor

let your unconscious get tle better of you. Still, all ropes
lead somewhere, all falls

Dnnr Crrv
& despair
makes dolts of any persons, shimmering in the quiescence of

8r

longing, skimming disappointment & mixing

it

cut to fade.

I.e.: 4 should always be followed by e ,6 by r3.

Or

with
breeze. The sting of

if
individuality is
a false
a

front, group solidarity is

false

fort.

recognition triggers the memory & try to take that apart (put that together).
Popeye

"ANY MORE FUSSING &YOU'LL GO RIGHT TO YOUR ROOM!"

She flutes that

no longer sails, but Betty

Boop will always sing sweetlier sweetliest than the crow who fly against the blank

slurp

admiringlier.
Any more blustering & I collapse as deciduous replenishment.
So sway the swivels, corpusculate tJre dilatations. For ['ve learned that relations are a small twig in the blizzard of projections & expectations. The story not capacity but care-

remorse of castles made bY dusk'

o*':t#;L.d
hght.

not size but desire.

''

Truth is the antithesis of existing society."

Emotions sf Normal foople

With high expectations, you plug
Into your board & power up. The
Odds are shifted heavily in your
Favor as your logic simulator comes

-TH.

AooRNo

On-screen. If there's a problem

You see exactly where it's located

& can probe either inside or

Outside with a schematic editor. English-like commands make

Communication

easy.

Auto-scale

Gets waveform capacity on-board

Without the need for monolithic or

Highpass

switch debouncers &

Dissipation separators. For

Correlating interactions, the r 6-

85

86

CrraRLEs BTnNSTETN
Bit data bus & interrupt controller
Lets you place a timestamp value on Every transaction 51s1gd-n1 n6 Cost to your memory depth.

Denr Crry
Real-time, transparent emulation
Capabilities, & the largest overlay

87

Capability in the industry, in

Rugged package with state-of-the-

Normalization then corrects for

Reflections & imperfections caused By connectors & cables. Enter the

Art flash-converter overflow

& a family of workstations &
Servers t}at thrive in a multi-

flags

Digitalizing oscilloscope with zo

GHz bandwidth,
r

Vendor environment. At which point

You can connect a bi-directional

o ps resolution, &

Floating-point primitives upwardly

Compatible with target-embedded Resident assemblers & wet-wet

Buffer or dumb terminal to the

Module's digital inputs & relay Outputs with crystal-controlled External trigger for jitter-free Duplex data compression & protocol

Compilers. & the fact that you can Configure it yourself means you
Get exactly what you

want-&

cut

Source codes.

Down on chances for device failure. Moreover, all systems components Are easy to install & reconfigure
Since interconnections use a

Dear Fran & Don,

Thanks so much for dinner last night. You two are terrific-we knew that about

Floating interface

tlat produces

Consistent low-loss mating. Add

you, Fran, but, Don-we don't meet rocket engineers such as yourself very often and so meeting you was a special treat!

88

CnaRLES BTnNSTETN
Next time---our little
Italian restaurant!

Danr< Crry

89

stems from the attempts of several vendors to control the marketplace by promoting standards that especially benefit their computing architecture.

Warm Regards,
Scott & Linda
I d like you to meet Jane Franham. Jane was my mother-in-law until I married Jim.While I was sure of Joan's
she might be tempted by other men. Now both hands are able to work, since the magnifier is suspended around the neck on an adjustable lengt} of cord. We had argued about his job before, about how'wrong it was for a man with three kids

Suddenly, in spite of worrisome statistics that had unnerved the Street, we developed conviction and acted on it. Aside

love, I still worried that

from the arbs and the rumor mill, the major trend remains up regardless of
street noise. The liquidity is t}ere, so any catalyst should hasten the major direction.The market's internal technical condition is far from overbought, which leaves room to rally back to October's
2Soo.

to spend

so

few days

a year

at home, with

no end in sight. I suspect t}at your father had an adrenal

gland tumor that was

driving his blood pressure I think our big problem is inhibiting post-normatization.
up. Lillie was very emphatic that she wanted to be a ballet dancer; the nun thing
was

just a passing

Success demands getting more from available space, taking efficiency to extremes, paying less for improved performance. Moreover, z44o sacrifices none of z43oe's performance. Intuitive user interfaces provide only pait of the road map

t}at lots of girls go through. Lipstick is meant to be the perfect finishing 16q6[-6ne that doesn't compete with
phase

out of the dark ages.

We've made debugging easier wit} differential nonlinearity,

monolithic time-delay generator-s, and remote-error sensing terminals (nrsrs).Yet, we still face a severe memory shortl
age a1d rather than resolve the problem we're buying our way out of it. We need a tariff on cheap foreign-made mEmory so we can regroup our own. The current controversy, however,

your eyeshadow or clash with your blushes. Only when the soup course
is finished is

the service plate

taken

6:u1.

-ffio's

the woman

yo u

9o
most admire? Is

CnaRLES BTnNSTETN it

Dnnr Crrv
powder one shade darker than skin tone. Brush on
temples
and under chin to widen face. For long-lasting

9r

Temple Black, Raisa Gorbachev, phyllis !h]1le;, Schlafly, Winnie Mandela, MotherTeresa oi Calcutta, or Ella Fitzgerald? After my neck surgery, Marge asked me

if I would be
investing in a lot of scarves. The Cowley's one exceptional expenditure is the sg83 they give every month to their church. This outlay represents nearly r S percent of their budget. And in r 985 and r 986, when the church was being enlarged to include a 2,f oo-seat chapel, Dick and CarJl

color, dust lips

with translucent powder

before applying
IiP

color. All things considered

Jo.
was a thoughtful husband.

contributed nearly z5 percent of their income. "The church is the focus of our lives," says Carol. She is a volunteer in t}e church

The

only thing nicer

than a letter from a friend is taking the time to read it over a warm cup of Orange Cappucino.

library; Dick teaches

adult Sunday school, accompanies the choir (on

trumpet), and
everyTuesday evening goes out on "visitations". However you come to terms with your feelings about your husband, you must face the fact that your son is totally innocent of any responsibility. No matter how much bitterness his father deserves, you must not transfer it

In InteliCorp's KEE, frames are called units, properties of

units are called slots, and properties of slots are called facets. InTeknowledge's 5. 2, however, frames are called classes, properties of classes are called attributes, and properties of attributes are called slots.

"When someone hits the board with the head in

That fashion, you can get a scalping effEct," Panzano said. "The board hits the head And the skin is peeled back and it requires Extensive suturing.The worst thing a Diver can do is hit the board or the Tower. When I see something like that, I Get a sick feeling in my stomach."

to the boy. De6ne brows with

brown eye-shadow pencil; blend with

stiffbrow brush for natural

effect. Use

g2

CTTaRLES BsnNSTETN

Denr Crrv

93

IJFou would love to be living your $e in a dfferent wal but don't want to spend a l{etime learning how . . . Dynamic short-term social
therapy can empower /ou to make the moves you've been aJraid-or L1n6$ls-gs make, in your personal l{e and S'our career. You don't have to be a victim oJ loneliness, depression,"mid-l{e crisis", indecisiveness,

Which best describes your dress size? What brands of bar

soap have been used in your household in the past 6 months?

or regrets. Free up your ability to grow and change

Wr

as

learn the emotional and social skills you need to be intimate and
p

fou

assionate.

ite The Dy srap

hi sm Center

Jor more ir{or mation.

Bernstein's argument is an important one and his dis-

Which of the following hypoallergenic products are currently being used in your household? Which of the following best describes the sensitivity of your skin? To which of the following products have you experienced a negative reaction? On average, how many days per week do you use foundation? Do you use a facial cleanser other than bor soap? Do you or anyone in your family wear support pantyhose? What brands of underwear do you wear? How often have you used a nasal spray in the last 6 months? How many tablets of pain relievers are used in your household each month? Did you ever use a nonprescription pain reliever in caPsule form? Do you own an automatic dishwasher? lf so, how many loads do you do in your automatic dishwasher in an average week? Do you use Mexican sauces such as salsa or picante? lf you have burned

cussion is consistently thoughtful, energetic, and smoothly handled. Any reader of the modern verse epic will find TheTale of thekibe: Ezra Pound and the M o d e rn Ve r s e Epi c stimulating and provo cative.
lrcrebA serves as Uour second and.final return notice. Since our previous notice to AILL remained unanswered, we nlust assunTe you do not want Aour Casio 300 rear projection

{1is

color'fV or Aour

three piece

Cardin designer luggage..5ltrs previously detailed, tlis sophisticated color projection television viewing
sAstemfeatures the latest in television technology.'fhis set delit:ers rich contrast and slmrp resolution. {his sgstem must
be given awaA in order n comply with state and federal regulations.

'[he sanrc is true of tlrc designer luggage by Qierre Cardin. lour failure to respond intntediately will release .!.Jour television to other persons located
in your region. Qlease call 1-800-2sS-4792
to sclrcdule Uour tour of {ree {ops fusort. Operators are on dury.

artificial firelogs in your fireplace, which brands do you burn most often? lf anyone in your family practices heart attack prevention, how? Which of the following home improvements do you plan in the next 6 to l2 months? How many times did you medicate for diarrhea in the past year? Are you concerned about the side effects allergy medicine can cause (drowsiness, dizziness, insomnia, sleeplessness, dry mouth)? ln an average month, how many calls are made by you and any other household member living with you to places outside your area code? Have you moved in the last year and during which month? How many vehicles are owned by members of your household? How do you feel about your present auto insurance company? Do you invest in or would you welcome literature describing special offers on securities? Which of the following do you own or have, or are you considering for first-time purchase or replacement within the next six months? What organizations do any members of your household belong to? How many times have you shopped by mail in the past month? Do you frequently donate by mail to any of the following?

9+

Crrenrps

BERNSTETN

Denr Crrv

95

Dear Mr. Chinitz:

to follow-up on two previous phone calls on because I will not beible to reach you by -*d phone late this afternoon when you are scheduled io be in your office. As you k o*, I called you on September 3o and October 2 to report a very loud vibrating noise coming from the main water risers in our apartment-a noise that affects the whole "R" line and can be heard in the hallway of the building. This noise persisted throughout the middle-of-the-night and into the day on t}e occasions I called. The noise was such as to prevent sleeping and t}us is a-disturbing and serious problem. Almando tlr.-rrp., checked out every apartment on the rear line of 464 on October z while the noise was going on and found it appeared to be unrelated to anywater use in those apartments.
Subsequent to t}at time, the situation had improved: the noise would occur sporadically for periods of fivi minutes to one hour. During the day today, however, the noise has been persistent from r r:oo am on. Typically, the vibration occurs for about r o seconds and t}en stops for about zo seconds. The hot water riser can be felt to shake: and the adjacent walls also shake. I had hope that this situation had been resolved, but

- I "T writing this subject

enable poets to accurately target their work to receptive publishers. Poets will find details on who to contact, how to submit work, types of poetry needed, comments from editors, poets published, whether the publisher accepts unsolicited poems, type of compensation (where applicable), and sample lines of recently published poems. ln addition, each listing is coded according to the level of submissions desired (beginner, experienced, or specialized). Through I2 "Close-Up" interuiews with such poets as Richard Wilbur, 1987 Poet Laureate of the United States, and Rita Dove, winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for poetry poets will gain further insight into the process of writing and publishing poetry. They'll also find advice on increasing their chances of being published by knowing how to judge their own work; participating in workshops, clubs, and networking; working with regional publications; plus opportunities in greeting card, poster, and postcard markets and information on contests and awards.

evidently not.Your urgent attention to this matter is

necessary and would be most appreciated.

l9B5 survey shows that 23.3 percent of all writers write poetry-that's 2,180,000 people who are writing poetry

and want to get published. 1989 Poet's Morketcontains current, accurate, and complete information to help poets to do just that. Poets will find out where and how to publish their poetry through 1,700 listings (550 of which are brand new) of mass circulation and literary magazines, trade book publishers, small presses, and university quarterlies. Updated listings

How do statesmen become aware of unfavorable shifts in relative power and how do they seek to respond to them? Who makes constitutional laws? Were early Americans a distinctly modern people, a people without a past? This is an exemplary work of mutually supportive normative argument and empirical investigation. Reading it is like backpacking through the nation's forests in company with a modern-day Thoreau. Secondly, the posture that the work takes is frankly quite liberal, and, in recent years, open and undisguised liberalism has become something of a debased currency. After absorbing these revelations and analysis, it is hard to imagine comprehending the origins and evolution of the cold war without them. Drawing on the work of lndian and fapanese patients and displaying a professional anthropologist's eye for telling detail, here is the first comprehensive study of Protestant theological concerns. A fascinating history that should be required reading for any serious student of turn-of-the-century

96

CneRLES BEnNSTETN

Denr Crry
fundamental and the other more or less

97

French gaiety. Abounds in rich description and valuable insight. Destined to become the definitive treatment for decades. All Americans who care about their country's

superficial. Actually,
most people need only a few close

place in the world will find this book worth reading.

Are you

normal person?

friends, with a larger circle of casual friends. Experiments show that

Probably for the most part you are. Your sex complexes, /our fears and furies and petty jealousies,

if someone says these

things to a man on his way to the office, sometimes he can scarcely work
and

your hatreds and deceptiveness, only serve

to secure your normalcy. I can still remember vividly the fear I once experienced,
as a

child,

will go home to bed.

Besides,

when threatened, on the way to school,

by a half-witted boy with an air-gun.

being busy is

not

virtue in itself!

But a person who calls himself

a

There are no adequate emotional outlets

psychologist is in a peculiar position

P.

for many

stresses and people

who depend completely

t}ese days. Dr. Cuit

on their emotions frequently 6nd themselves in jail. This explains why persons with father-in-law, familial

Tichter of the Johns Hopkins University

lound that Norway rats
died quickly if

t}eir whiskers were clipped

or boss troubles develop painful spasms. The intestine is

as sensiti'r,e

and they were put into a

tank of water. Actually, we have two emotional levels, one

to bombardments
as

from the brain to sun

the skin of some people

rays. The

98

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN

Danr Ctrv
differences make them five times more fearful than women.They attach more

99

bowel is a bear for punishment. In such an atmosphere

a

husband can develop a disturbing

importance to security than women do. Emotionally

they are never on the same keel two days in a row; as a result, they need constant reassurance." But some parents
always act fearsome and

sense

of inferiority. He begins

to doubt that he still has t}e capacity to be attractive. He may

become so convinced that he has lost his

charm that he no longer

makes any effort to look nice or appear charming. Of course, tJre

protective toward their chlldren, not thinking

that by killing

their nerve they are also killing their chances

as

opposite type of upbringing can be just

of having rich,

harmful. Of course,
you can't grade husbands like apples or oranges,

exciting, and successful lives. Children

are born

with

dropping each through

a

practically no fears and if not repressed

by their overanxious and tyrannical parents

slot previously evaluated for size,

shape, dis-

position, and domesticity. "Men like to be bossed," says Dr.

Cleo Dausson, tlniversity of Kentucky psychologist and authority on masculinity. "Men are fearful. Glandular

would have a natural courage that would

sustain them throughout life.

Nor can I second

your notion that you've got moral grounds for divorce. Rather, I think your

Ioo

CTTaRLES BpnNSTETN willing to submit to

Dan

r Crrv

misery calls for psychiatric treatment. In other words, the mother's natural reflex equilibrium could not be restored to
a

any degree ofhardness or

criticism or reproof from the teacher

completely resting or balanced condition until Teddy

had learned

or examiner without
assuming the least antagonism

to perform his part of the rug-folding

process perfectly, and was

of attitude.

In any

case, sarcasm

further able to take the initiative

in directing his mother's
movements so that they would cooperate completely

is evidence of a sadistic trend in one's

personality.

with his own. Again the explanation

of their incompetence in passing
a

mental

test may lie in the subjects' seeming

inability
to regard fellow students
any element
as

rivals, or to feel

of

opposition

in eit}er the test itself or the examiner. They

frequently appear just
as

well satisfied

with

poor record

as a

good one and seem

Debris of Shock

/ Shock of Ilebris

The debt that pataphysics owes to sophism cannot be overstated. A missionary with a horse
gets saddlesores as easily as a politburo

functionary. But t}is makes a mishmash of overriding ethical

impasses. If the liar is a Cretan I wouldn't trust him

anyway-extenuating contexts wouldn't amount to a hill of worms

so

far

as

would have been deeply concerned about

the fate of their, yes, spools. Never

burglarize

a house

with

standing army,

nor take the garbage to an unauthorized

junket.Yet when I told the learned
ecologist about my concern for landscape
she stared unsympathetically

into the

carbon. Mr. Spoons shook his head, garbled his

hypostases. To level with you we'd have

ro5

Io5

CTTaRLES BpnNSTETN

Denr Crry
red, thick pink, thick ochre, medium green paintstick (thick), thin black, thin ochre, thin red, paper palette, tissues, garbage bags,
wax.
Yet

to be on the same
level. Then, with all honesty, we can

only proceed to deplane. Looking for society in a lamppost will not necessarily eliminate
need for empirical
evidence. There are the

it

is the virile voice of authority, the condescending

below- the- surface conduits

smugness in tone, that is thrilling. What does

to consider. As a rule, I keep

my mittens in the drawer. Structure
is metaphorical, function metonymic. Meaning

it matter that

he hasn't any . . . "Creative

goals and financial goals are identical: we just have different approaches on how to research those goals, and we have different definitions

my aim is to blur
the distinction between logic and normalization.

of risk." A localization that may not dovetail with forced archaization, which
is the groundswell of our importunity. & speaking of "pressmen's licence", here is a truly

("Though I still don't get how confusion

is supposed to be positive?") Are they literally

bricks or are they literal steps? The infernal machinery of missing harness, by t}e bus,
gates close to malediction, as in

novel instance of "creating facts"

riddled with holes like baloney.

)/es a

Respond:

get offmy bunt, churning

no.

The point not to right wrong

in make-work flirtation, shocked to find

bandit

but to come to terms

loosened . . .Venetian red (Rem), prussian

with error. It's not only

the wrong road but the wrong

ultramarine (Rem), shiva red, thick

Io8

CTTnRLES BTnNSTETN

Denrc Crrv
explosion, returned the next day to the mine

r09

destination; still it there's no way back, there's company

& the memory: what other

image of courage could have
so

in the
loss. Heeding without ceding . . . Couples dancing in the snow, in the blinding

little capital & so much

weight? The salt

light. No matter how much you protest. "!f I'd have lived longer,l'd
even more money." have lost

of the earth is the tears

of God, torn for

penitence at having created this plenitude

For months he retreated

into his inner sanctuary, emerging only for meals & sleep; once, stealing through its
Iocked doors, we briefly glimpsed

of sufferance. So we dismember (disremember) in homage to our maker, foraging

in fits, forgiving in
forests, spearing what we take

the spot: bare

walls without furniture or implement, floor covered with thick black

to be our sustenance: belittling to rein things in to human scale. A holy land parched

loam. Better
a

witl grief & dulled

envy.

barber than a splendor

The land is soil

be. Fool's gold

is

& will not stain; such

hope as we may rise hom.

t}e only kind of gold I

ever cared about. The men, having lost their comrades in the

Motion rises, sustains

Heart in My Eye

predilection in askance who periodize location, slush

boat to chimes slows emotion, Iike as in thumping pummels or pulverizes punt vicarious want to be possessed no room arrays diphthong slope

gumption gum drilled or guttered, the contraption is delinquent must fly trap or elevate theatrical equivalent of lozenge a.k.a. e'er do-well seamster stirs up corollary antidote or weightlier osmosis stems looking glass affect coddling codices in endoskeletal humor mongering-you'd
have to

nd6i1-

belies the unpoetic poetic who cruises palatially-

13

rt+

CueRLES BpnNSTETN
all adrift

Danr Crrv
baloney, scintillating sway of deadbeat ejaculation, sippinggood aluminum : anything that can be forgot

I I5

inlgndsd-['ll

get slumpy and maybe open a garden (leveled at about

3o,ooo fleet;-o.1ru,"
the boom-shebang effect fostered at time

will be forgotten blue ashtray on a plexiglass puncture, plowed

to enclosure, moment before enunciation: I leJt
you there but you have never found me though I hide

interlock, station flayed by

inoperable hampers, obsequious swoops, as pulp bumps plop, thingamawhoseit buffle

joint,

glassed in gradually gestures of gerrymand

origin, jitters jocose nor say thismaterials not hard to

locate

oblong-

in visibility and wade higglety pigglety among

archways or ski lifts courting caresses while plummeting occasionally to shoreline sighting concavities like the

ful rsf6rrnas

Iike like or

before, getting a taxi in a sandstorm breathes (not breaths)

a

mannequin that had no manners, trading flops for angular inebriation

lie of belief

(awful salvage), lighting delay

tokes ofcongregation voids convivial handtray intubation until detains corrode lavalier pistol-whip upholstery larvae of dysfunction branding witless hip, demarcation

if details could reverse the course of reason's palsy:

as

heart in my eye remorse buckles under weight that overpowers all

CunRLES BTnNSTETN
I call mine all touched by such exposure imagination flings tools formed in shellbent plan we mourn at singular unleavening
excretes by fold

Heveal f,odes

is often said that the bladder is an unreliable witness. I've felt that way myself coming back from a sluggishly encumbered day at the computer bank. "They clammed up like so many turtles in overdrivs"-lu1 only if you didn't get to know their Mercurial propulsions. There's a version that says quell the branches before you braid or at least unload the interfusing hot buttons. Don't know much about chopped wax either, loop the reliquary, some cross-valent comet coming at

It

jo,ooo kilobytes per minute per mention, I left

the rack at the store but recalled the combination to the cross, "he would suck up to an octopus if he thought it would strangle somebody for him", no pork barrel just juiced petunias . . .

It was one of those almost unfamiliar sections of LA, just beyond the tar
pits, where you could get steak & eggs for breakfast for under ten & change. I wasn't quite a regular but they knew me well enough to bring the order without asking too many questions. It was a dive I went to to get my mind offwork, my attention

Intermittent Diffuse with just enough juice

to register the scene at the end table by the picture of Hydra.

tr9

120

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
Ripping through the water like it was so much
Swiss cheese

Danr Crry
Or more due than ever done, when debts Soak the morning and regrets eventide
My name is Necromancer

r2r

"The only thing Swiss about you is the baloneyl"

Dear Mr. Charles,

My sister calls me Still

I'm widely known

've trouble with

as CastAway

I wish and pray this letter finds you in the best of health and cheers. May I introduce myself as a missionary priest working for North East India with its thousands of dowtrodden people, suffering from the pangs of poverty, illiteracy diseases, etc. Hence in tleir name this begging letter to you for any little help.
So many innocent and poor children are to be fed, educated, and looked after. Timely aids for emergency needs give us tensions in distress we have no other way than to make appeal in folded hands to kind

myTiill

Yet despite the disintegration of his personality, tle foolishness of his actions, his excessive drunkenness and incurable extravagance, Goldsmith was, and is, a great man-a man of rare talents that border on genius, one of the finest natural writers in the English
language.

For Blake's art is ornamental & rhetorical, not organic &

formal.
Slip & slide

pop'n'frzz
blink and whine
drop, spin
There hangs the fade, t}ere the woolen shoes. The roof has swoopstwo fools under one hood, alarmed to the teeth one with an eye on the sail

hearted people. Fr. Pallatty M. Madras 6oo oo8

Dried ice or crunched innuendo, on your toes then on your knees. To capitalize Despair-1[n1 was the old way; to capitalize on despair, who promises an aspiring future
in piece goods . . . The boat found the hay but the ocean had turned to a symphony of suction. So long sweet tuna,
so long

other with ear 16 *1s-. Where the carcass is, there the crow flies.
Swarming around the bandshell

gfiltefsh.The only true traditions

the ones we invent to vent the spleen of the inconsolable Ioss of history's ambient diffusion and victory's unsparing parry. Witless in the rain, sober

inthedew...

waiting for t}e buzz saw or Buick Pompadour convertible

CneRLEs BTnNSTETN
coupe or any so-called doze-proof buffet

Dnnx Crry
hearts break when you don't touch them? Are the rich getting richer or are you just glad to see me?

t23

Or, to put it more bluntly, no gain no pain. As if no pain wasn't pain enough.
This buttons the cue when the overlay is toggled. "Hot keys"-i.e. combinations you press to access
a resident, or underlying, program, as "control" and "home", "mother" and "blarrket",

"l didn't give it to you with any sand so why do you give it to me with sand?"
"Well, Blanche, I just brought the egg over here because the recipe says to separate iwo eggs."

LET'S CALL THE POLICE!

"Let's call the Swedish delegation!"
Call me irresistible or call me unreliable but don't call me I'll call you He showed a malignant unwillingness to differentiate fram es sugge stingjan und erlying'refusal

"disguise" and "revenge".

As in a lifeguard's better than no guard. As if you could guard life wit}out blanking it out.

My friend PollyVocal called the other day just to say hello. I decided not to pick up and returned the call to the machine on her ot}er number.
Go On Get Down

to distinguish between performative, substantive,

substantive -performative, and
p

erferm o- substantive

utterances.

"I thought utterances were for cows"

"You think you're big but in reality you're very litde"

"Do they have a bar here?"

Short stabs or quick hits or is there an exit & is it near the "exit" sign?
Is the Pope Polish? Does : * S equal S * :? Is Lincoln buried in Grant'sTomb? Is the South Bronx a WASP enclave? Will this burn at Fahrenheit 45fl Is Napoleon the President of the Bahamas? Is Communism finished? Do

"In reality" I don't exist though I will recently

have moved to Buffalo.

Elbow or buckled philodendrom "lt's just hard it's not like you're gonna get killed" First there is the build up & then the fizz (frx). In Utopia the story will never end.

t2+

CTTnRLES BEnNSTEIN _((Q1begin,,

"Yah but a softball is still hard"

Den rc Crry
"But I can't help it" "Then I can't help you"
(As if volition were voluntary)
You have to occupy yourself sometimes, draw on your own resources.

t25

Or if this followed the other, that this? This that other, the followed this if, or.
Just don't say

it like you mean it

You can't substitute heating oil for 'moral panic' You get the hose, I got the biscuits

hs lf you had anyl

My inner resources are overdrawn, in the

sense of interest due &exaggerated, which go together like an ant and a pineapple, a zebra and polystyrene wrap, petunia

Look! Look! I'm eternally attentive but nowhere sentient

"Just tell the snake, 'NO'!"

and DOS

+.or.

DOS, DOS and not a drop to drink DOS, DOS don't you know the road

Fluidly floral or floridly fluid

Butcha better belch

"No they're not fighting it's real pluy"

She doesn't

What I've never understood about fashion is that if you buy a new swimsuit (what we used to call bathing suit) every summer what do you do with the old trunks?
Ou sont 1es bikinis d'antan?
"Yeah yeah" [negative double positive]

give up she doesn't even try!

Flummoxed or flunked or flushed or refrigerator

Decals make the man much the way oilcloth makes the kitchen. "Oilcloth" being an oldfashioned way of saying linoleum,"decals" being an oblique way of suggesting modelsfor.

MAKE MAYONNAISE NOT MUNITIONS

DISPOSSESSTHE RICH NOTTHE POOR
Save gas, stay at home. Save electricity, sleep more.

"['m hungry

and want someone to greet"

If sand'll get you shore, sad'll get you exacdy nowhere.

Improve your mindr get a vasectomy.

r25

CTTIRLES BTnNSTEIN
No I'm not hostile, just unhappy.
No I'm not unhappy, just hostile. I mean, hospitable. . . I mean I've been a little grumpy the past few decades Harder for a rich man to read a poem than for a hippopotamus to sing bel canto.
Preposterous! Para(pa)posterous.

Danr Crrv
Hollow words with a ring of truth, signet of sorrow. Not to reprimand is to be remanded to the custody of those escaped the tide of moral pull: accumulation beyond the wildest needs of child or woman or man-this is the first sin. Our jailers are our constipating sense of selfnot that madmen claim many kin. Rue or be ruled or take a ruler to t}e wind to measure the gravity that locates us surely as the morning falls, whether or not we get up.

r27

Indubitably, indubitablier, emergency intubation

or else_
wake me for meals

-lq1

t}en you've probably never heard Rataxes sing!

Not only that, either-when two bits ain't worth a dime, you might as well swap those Swamis for some canned fish No, I'm not sarcastic, just unsettled, like
images of the Indians trouble my sleep, Iike we settled altogether too much too fast & have to throw out our backs retracing our steps
There is a madness to

their method:Take no

prisoners, pensioners
For to dissect is to delight in the sentient; all else is so much hocus pocus, ring-a-leveos of repression and triplebind, culpable blindness to what is before our touch. Read to redress, disguise as promise-not to submit.

The Influence of Hinship Patterns upon Perception of an Amhiguous Stimulus

What's money worth? Not a whole lot

You come up a few bits short & come

if

Away empty handed. If that was the case

What would you have to say then? At least

The motorperson knows how to blow a whistle.

At least in the winter it's not summer

(God damn mosquitoes & horseflies).What did
The Mandela say to the Mandela? BOY

HITS IGLOO. Snowed motion, i.e., frosted or

Laminated. To be such a bitter pill

& have nothing wrong. Don't laugh

It really hurted.If you put on

My shirt then what shirt am I Going to wear? The kind of people
Wear plaid Bermuda shorts. The kind of
People that judge people who wear

Plaid Bermuda shorts.The kind of

I3I

r32

CTTnRLES BTnNSTETN
Day this has been (l think I am

Danr Crrv
Meanwhile, the water is wetter in the

r33

Falling into a tunnel of love but Forget to get on). For a long time I'd
Say

Rich man's pond but doesn't taste

As good.

-H.y

wait a minute!

twirl when I meant'spin'. Have you

That's abit too close, try to stay

Back ar least

Heard the one about the fly & the

Paper? The fly bottle could not found

to inches.

So

what

If the margins don't

Turn out right? Whadda
yo:u mean

The fly. The Mother Bear could not Find the rest of the story. Harry has his

you're

Going to the next poem? This is thebest

Tioubles too but t}ese are not interesting enough

To bear replay. "That's a very

?art! Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I misunderstood

You.

-But

nobody seems to want to hear

Suspicious-looking baby." "It's hard

About the pain we men feel

Having our prerogatives questioned.

Not to be a baby." "But

Are t}ere really babies or just babyBehavior?,,

A bunch of darn-dash pragmatists

-For

the purpose

With justice on t}eir side (for all

The good that will do them). Don't Frame me or

Of your request ['m including this

Sentence about the influence of John Ashbery. While

I'll

bust you in the

lsg'g

tle

packet

Doldrums.

-ltl6w

Boat sunk I can still imagine I am

Switch the subject & try to 6nd

Crawling into it; at the same time the ice

Is too thin to

Out what's

on1.our mind.Voyage

of life

Getting you down? Felt better when things

Were really rocky & now there's smooth

Pretend to fall through.

r3+

CTTaRLES BTnNSTETN
Sailing but it's lost its meaning?

Danr Crry
a

r35

I'm

No more breathe than face

The music. But if the first
Banana smells a rat look out

Good listener & only mildly demanding:

There's just the one-time fee (mostly

for

For paper & printing & distribution Costs) & unlimited returns. I'm bubbling over

Lost leader (tossed reader).

-'(1

don't think I'm ever

Going home."

With empathy & good

advice &

I'm not

-[

d6n'1 think
We are

Afraid to tell you where I think you've

Gone wrong. ls1's fxgg

I've ever been hom e.

lookingjor

i1-

CheerJul, enthu si asti c selJ- star ters

From tlre word go yot've

Resented

With solid backgrounds in detailed

Wails.

me-resented my being finished

The point

In the face of your-wh21f-s6nlinuing

Not to change history but to change

Events. For instance, you
Can change in the car, change on the Beach, or use a changing room

On? But I don't mean to be complete If t}at makes you feel distant; still
As I say, I

Do want some distance. She was

At the beach. Don't

& I won't change
a

change me

Sort of Betsy Ross figure but without t}e

hair on your

Accoutrements-no washer/dryer, just the one

Chinny chin chin. Or let me Put it this way: You can call Me anything you want to but give me
The right change. That's right: I haven't changed, you have. It's

TV. I said to her-What can you expect

From
She
a poem?

-6yldgn1ly
bleeds

lot less than

did. A poem

Metaphorically, just like I do. I can

r35

CrraRLEs BpnNSTETN
Not the time it's the beer. I'm in
A rush, don't forget to send
Check. Not a con Just a dodge. Not a dodge a Lincolna

Mercury.

Thke me to

low

leader-Take me

To the 5 & Dime I've got to go.

Faith under leisure: as difficult Keeping a hat in a hurricane

as

Or an appointment with an erasure.

One Mandela

hit the other Mandela in the nose.

What color blood came out?

R-E-D

spells red.

Are you people? You're about the nicest people I know & [ know some pretty unpleasant
characters-

"We're

a great

Pair-

Dark [ity

I've got no voice & you've got no ear."

Scorr to -l124sp1n HssroN, CneRrroN

Dark City

r. Apple-PickingTime

A transom stands bound to a flagpole. Hard by we go hardly which way is which lingering somewhere unsettled where evidence comes harder by sockets, stems etched in flexed omission like osmotic molarities flickering edge and orange at flow rates unrepresentative of ticking or torpor any child or person requires for, well against, tfiat remorse remonstration brings. It's cold outside, maybe but the heart sinks daily in slump of sampled parts and / Jeel like carelessness, disowning what's acquired in indifferent animation, no body swaps tonot as if elevated or cut down to size up, like layers of lost boys, like aspiration in a tub at sea, lists all the scores and scares at measures twice the fall. I'm parked because I have no taste to go-penned down, no row to call
r39

r+o

CnaRLES BrnNsrErN
my own. Abruptly, silently borrowing ignition from rumble, pouring face into a

Danr Crrv

r+r

stir...
We're a great 6re, pining for a tower to burn through, yet no matter whose ice scatters our 5hsu15dive for the switches, bury the
slots.

abutment, laceration, absinthe-oriented divestment OD sased to occur or unveil its numinous ectoplasmic Jill or gel or JELLO AGAIN THIS IS JACK BENNY FOR

JELLO PUDDING AND PIE FILLING.

Overboard or just over-by-a-long shot. Grateful to even imagine
shore. As a matter of fact

There's an eggplant in heaven Seen it there, know the sign It's awaiting for me End of time, long-lost rime

I'm

as

good as packed.

I slept longer than you

Now isn't that true?

A poem should not mean but impale not be but bemoan,
boomerang

I loved my love with gold

She loved me

with her smile

But I took no possession Then / Had no taste called mine I knew I wept alone that night As sure as sheep inJolds The I has ways the arm betrays For now my lance is worped
The

buck(le)
bubble. Malted meadows & hazelnut I'll bet the soda water gets the shakes sooner than Dan gets toTampa. "Don'tTampa with me or I'll lacerate that evisceration off your face so fast

innuendos:

Bitter Core o'erwhelms its;fate

you'll think my caddle prod

was a

An abler loss casts breeze Sobriety's aJool's wa)/ out

lollipop." "Stay out my face or

I'll

I'll

take the sea in me, in me Nor swap the wavesjor thee.

Floorlengt} gowns of commodious indelicacy suffusing articles on plums in monk's applause, equipped with attenuated slips, adjunctive rumination, felt bellows. Before I, in the interests of but not to further ascribe, at which mechanism, slate, pediment, protrusion

deploy my assets against whatever collateral you've got left after I target your abstemious alarm." He was the kind of guy who pushed my buttons but couldn't carry a tune from Kuala Lampur to Guadalajuara, like those zebras with cross hatchings, or the trapeze

family withVenusian ventilators. I mean I felt good at first but then it dawned on me, what

r+2

CneRLES BrnNsrErN
if it was really a mistake, maybe I shouldn't have said what I
said, did what I done. Mildred paced around the museum

Denr Crrv
but has its puddle, no rose without overthrows.Ask no questions and at last
you shall be blind! A stumble may prevent a fall but a fall guy's my kind of man. Every poem has its price, every anxiety i151s\Mildbut no person ever tripped in the same place more than / choose to recall. There are spots even on the sofa (meddle not with another person's meddling, i.e., the rock that falls from the sky breaks your toes). For the footprint makes the joint a well-appointed appurtenance aside t}e jesting hooligan, shenanigan, or general call to bedlam, or did she say, be calm? Clammy hands hurt the advancement of t}e waiter but I never heard no tell of no gust or gallon of time worth the curins in weisht alone. Boxers oo can't live by punching alone, but stay clear of such as possible-a Divine Swerve will still land you

r+3

for another few hours before she spotted him, but it was much too crowded to finish the job right there. "They were my favorite boots," she cried. "They are your only boots," I replied.

2. Early Frcst

I think it's time we let the cat out its bag, swung the dog over the shouldeq so to say, let t}e hens
say

"hey" to the woodpeckers, doled

out some omniaversions to the too-tapped-upon, t}e tethers without

toggles, the field-happy expeditioneers on t}e march toTuscaloosa, Beloit, Manual Falls, Florid Oasis. "Damn but you're a beautiful

cow/ ofalbell! Haven't I seen you on the radio?" Where are t}ose fades (arcades, shades) when you need them? Who was that text I saw you with last night? Is there life after grammar (glamour)? The Czech is in t}e jail (the wreck is in the wail, the deck is in the
sail, the Burma shave's shining over t}e

in Hell's cauldron. I[us make your peace with yourself at your own risk for peace with the Devil costs everybody more than you could hope to destroy. Holy is as holy does.
Essence precludes existence.

starry blue skies, Waukeegan, New Jersey,

r

9+r). He that cannot

pay: let him pay!

through a hole will kiss the wave that troubled her. No larder
She that peeps

r+4

CHaRLES BTnNSTEIN

Denr Crrv
Love is like love, a baby like a baby, meaning like memory, light like light. A journey's a detour

r+5

3. Endless Destination
If I should die cut out my throat and burn it on the pyre of their indifference. It means no more to me than that, to take your hand in my hand and turn our backs from the rvreck
not of our lives but where we have been given to live tlem. I would not walk alone here, where the dark surrounds, where your face
radiates beyond my swollen misgivings and clarifies the mist

andapocketacharm
in which deceits are borne. A cloud is a cloud and a story like a story,
song is a song, fury

like fury.

+. In the Pink

of my belonging. Stay near

t}at I may hold you lightly

else the fear inside tear away what measures I have held against the night. Love's no more than tlat straw against t}e wind that blows us to the ground
a

Now let's turn to some advise for expectant fat}ers. Never wear a hat to a hanging or carry a feather pillow to cello practice. Suffer not the professor of culture nor the minister of taste, but assail all who complacent sit in the place of those deserve it.Take the cracks on the wall as your credo or callobscurity's in the eye of ones will not beholdwhat they can understand isn't woith the price of a used tin can. I may be loco

without submission. Come

love, come, take this shadow I call me: cast it against stone, lest the gloom become us. Come cast me down 'gainst shore, where sand enfolds us.

but at least l listen: What you've tuned out would make a Paradise of Plies.
This is the difference between truth and reality: the one advertises itself in the court of brute circumstance the other is framed by its own
insistences. Tiuth's religious, reality

r+6

CrraRLEs BTnNSTETN
cultural, or rather truth is the ground of reality's
appearance but reality intervenes against all odds.

Cnanrrs BERNSTETN
Charles Bernstein was born in r95o in NewYork City. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and Harvard ColIege. He lives in Buffalo, and in Manhattan, with painter Susan Bee and their children Emma and Felix. Bernstein's first book, Parsing, was published by his own Asylum's Press in t976. In r 978 he began editing, wit} Bruce
Andrews, the influential critical j ournal, I =,{ = N - G- U = A- G = E. The same year, Sun & Moon Press published Shade, in its first book publication. Controlling Interests 1r98oy and Islets/lrritations (r983) further established the characteristic range of Bernstein's stylistic and philosophic preoccupations. The Sophist, published in r987, made apparent that comedy was a fundamental element of his work. Llke The Sophist, RoughTiades, published in r 98 r , received international critical attention. Writing in American Book Re. view Pierre Joris declared: "Rough Trades-and starting with the title's witty punning on atmospheric conditions, sexuality, labor 1glnd6n5-does not only give pleasure through its intelligence and wit. It is also a book that demands the reader's constant rethinking of her own'ground' and poetic presuppositions. . .. This is exhilarating and liberating work." Bernstein has published two substantial, and widely reviewed, collections of essays-Content's Dream 1r986y and ,{ ?oetics (t992).[n r99o, he edited ThePolitics of Poetic Form:?oetry and Public Policy as well as ?atterns
Pafis Revierv and boundary z.

5. The Plight oJ the Bumblebee She was a rudder

without anchor
in a chaos of expectation,
a comb

witlout teeth,
brush without bristles.

6. Iuntitled]

"The words come out of her heart & into the

language" & t}e language is in the heart

of that girl who is in the heart

Contexts

Time,

with

ofyou.

Phillip Foss. He has also edited collections of poetry for The

In collaboration with

Susan Bee, Bernstein has produced

several books that explore visual settings of text. Bernstein is

also active in musical theater; he has written three librettos with composer Ben Yarmolinsky.

From t}e early '7os to the late'8os, Bernstein worked as a vwiter/editor on healt}care and medical topics, wit} a break to serve asAssociate Director of the cETA Artists Project (the largest postwar American public employment program for artists).

ln t99o, Bernstein was appointed David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at the State University of NewYork, Buffalo, where he is a founding member of the Poetics Program in the Department of English.